All Things Surf. Travel, Destinations, Video, Photos.

Archive for the 'Travel' Category

“Here are a few images from a recent trip Kahana Kalama and Surfing the Nations went on to Bangladesh. It is a glimpse into a documentary that Russell Brownley is working on about a surf club in Bangladesh. Many of the children are street kids or come from very poor families. Some don’t even know how to swim, but their love for surfing brings them together and into a way of life they never even knew existed. An ocean that was once deemed off limits due to fear and a very conservative Islamic culture, is now becoming source of fun, escape and even a chance for a way to make a living.”

In a move that screams “We really don’t give a flying &*$% about surfers,” United Airlines recently raised their fees to $175 per surfboard per way. Brendon Thomas of Surfer Magazine writes a letter to United after having to pay $700 for board fees on a roundtrip flight to Hawaii. Last year airlines raised carry on fees across the board, but United’s surfboard fee seems to target surfers specifically. Write United Customer Relations expressing your dissatisfaction on their fees (it’s a web form).

To put it in perspective, you can fly with golf clubs that weigh up to 50 lbs in place on a checked bag (no fee), but flying with a 6 lb surfboard costs $175.

While one particular airline jacking fees on surfboards is not particularly troubling, but when it starts a trend it becomes a serious barrier for surf travel. Let airlines know now that unfair surfboard fees are prohibitive.

The first real swell of the season arrives at Ocean Beach, San Francisco. The buoys on Saturday were reading 15 ft. at 20 seconds (Somehow hardly any of this swell filtered down to Southern California). Ocean Beach was huge. A few local chargers managed a few giant waves dodging clean up sets. Link to the full size slideshow on Flickr.

Cory Lopez and crew headed off to Africa and discover a once in a lifetime wave. The wave is Skeleton Bay in Africa and was also featured in this month surfing magazine under the Google Earth Challenge (read the winner, Brian Gable’s account of searching, finding, and surfing this wave).

Even Pipeline chargers get bored. So Jamie Sterling for reasons unclear starts off a road trip somewhere in Texas to drive to Puerto Escondido for the Mexican Pipeline. The first two videos of the series on RedBullSurfing.com show exactly why it’s a worthless idea to fly from Hawaii to Texas just so you can then backtrack 700 miles to Arizona to drive down to Mexico. The third video installation though shows what we all dream of at Puerto. Long glassy roping barrelling waves. In fact, the waves are so good and long they don’t even look like the beach break Puerto we’ve all heard of.

The coastline of the middle east, the last surfing frontier? Likely. Countries of Somalia, Yemen, Oman, Iran, and Pakistan all have significant coastline exposed to Indian Ocean swells (check out how long Somalia’s coast line is). A quick search on Wannasurf.com listed one spot in Somalia, none in Yemen, 12 in Oman, and not surprisingly none in Iran or Pakistan.

Yemen is an elusive surf destination. A very conservative Muslim country that has in past been an enclave of Al Qaeda. The government isn’t too keen on tourism and you’ll likely be the only surfers in the country. A few adventurous surfers hit up Yemen and charged the various breaks down there. Check out the article at the LonelyPlanet.com.

“You’ll need ample time, determination and money; but for the experienced wave rider looking for quality surf spots and empty beaches, Yemen is the ultimate adventure playground. The mainland has a number of gentle points, some good-quality beach breaks and one world-class wedge that, day after day, chucks out massive barrels with a predominantly offshore wind.”

“If circling hammerheads and the risk of terrorism aren’t enough to put you off, you could be among the first to blaze a trail to this top-class surfing destination. Local tour operators are only just starting to latch onto what they’ve got. For the moment independent surf travel is all but impossible – you’ll need to employ a tour company to source jeeps, guides and permits. Though this all adds up, making a Yemeni surf trip anything but cheap, you’ll be getting some dream waves in return.”

The writer claims Yemen offers long reeling points, beach breaks, and wedges. Suqutra, Yemen’s largest island is located conspicuously offshore in the line of swell pumping off low pressure systems during the monsoon season from May to September. No doubt you’ll have the place to yourself.

So the time to go is between May and September. You’ll want to bring your standard short board, a satellite phone, a copy of the Koran, and any connections you have with the US State Department.

Wired Magazine has a good post on Delta’s new excessive boardbag fees for surfboards. They are $175 each way for domestic flights and $300 each way for international flights. What’s interesting is that they don’t charge for golf clubs (heavier than surfboards). Here’s a list of sporting goods you can check for free on Delta: golf bags weighing under 50 pounds, scuba gear, snowboards, pistols, rifles, shotguns, fishing equipment, javelins, parachutes, ski gear and vaulting poles. In general airlines have jacked up fees for surfboards in recent months (list of boardbag fees on major airlines). Some of this is understandable considering what’s happened with gas prices in recent months and how airlines have started charging to check in any bag. But Delta’s fees are just plain excessive. Either they don’t care if surfers fly on their airline, they want to actively discourage them, or they just think they can get away with it. Sign a petition here to protest these fees on Delta.

Cannibals and surf exploration don’t mix well. In 1975, traveling Australian surfers, Kevin Lovett, John Giesel, and Peter Troy were traveling Indonesia on motorcycles in search of new perfect waves. They were drawn to the island of Nias off the coast of Northern Sumatra by a horseshoe shaped bay a the Southern end of the island that looked promising for surf. They were right. They discovered Lagundri Bay and surfed it alone for three months. The discovery set would set the surf world on fire and open the door for further exploration of Indonesia. (An account of surfing the remote islands of Northern Sumatra).

Kevin Lovett later learned that the three of them had been targets of cannibal practicing tribes on the island during their stay. The blog, Strange Maps of the World, presents a early 20th century map of the world highlighting areas that practice cannibalism both historical and present. A good guide when heading off to Papua New Guinea, Vanatu, or other unchartered areas. [Link to larger image of Map] “Indonesia, Micronesia and the rest of Oceania are marked by many contemporary instances of cannibalism, in Australia, New Guinea, Borneo (Dayaks) and Sumatra (Bataks).” Don’t think we were not immune to it, while Europe seemed free of Antropophagie (Greek for “eating of humans”) – something that may more than anything indicate a bias in the map, North America certainly was not.

Last week I posted my story on my boat trip to Northern Sumatra. Here’s a sick video by Patagonia and their sponsored surfers (the Malloys, Belinda Baggs, Fletcher Chouinard) of the their trip to the same area.